The technology we deploy in the workplace is going to be relied upon to make or break the success of enforcing failure to comply with Return to Office (RTO) mandates.
If you work for an organization who’s either thinking about or already has put in place an RTO or in-office policy or mandate that has non-compliance terms attached to it. Essentially saying, if someone fails to comply, there can be consequences. Then this article is for you!
I’m not going to use this article to debate the pros or cons of RTO mandates because regardless of how you feel about them, you might find yourself in a position to either have to discuss how you're going to measure them, or like I’ve already received a number of calls on, having to measure them once they’ve been declared.
How do you go about gathering the data to enforce such a policy if your organization has decided to go down this route?
The black and white of this situation is pretty easy to solve. The default answer in everyone's head is to use badge data.
But if you are a longer time listener to the podcast, you know I’m seldom a fan of badge data, but it can be used to identify if a specific individual has in fact swipe their card at a physical office on a given day of the week. That’s the very easy piece to solve for, it’s the black vs the white of, did a specific person come into the office today or not.
Now let’s just put the “I gave it to my friend to swipe for me” scenario aside and assume the vast majority of people are playing by the rules, then basic swipe data is going to of course tell you who showed up at the office and with some simple excel sorting… how many days of the week.
In many executives' heads, that’s problem solved right there, correct?
Well, maybe.
The next question I would ask (and I have) back to those wishing to enforce it is:
“Are you good with someone coming to the office at 8:30 and leaving at 9…. Does that count as a day? Are they in compliance with the policy?”
I’m pretty sure, after a few people look at each other across the table perplexed, the answer will be, “No. We want them to be in the office the whole day, or at least a majority of the day.”
And here’s where the fun begins :)
Now before we go any further, I’m going to put something out there and then I’m going to explain to you why.
It’s my opinion that organizations looking to enforce RTO policies are not actually looking to ensure people are working in the office. What they are actually trying to police is, People Working from Home.
And that my friends, is actually a whole different policy. Bear with me here and you’ll see why.
Let’s go back to our prior scenario where they’ve told you that simply showing up doesn’t count, that the people actually have to spend the day, or the majority of it in the office.
Ok great, it’s a little more complex or invasive to measure, but in even the most basic of smarter spaces, we can gather that data.
We can enforce badge out, ensuring that every employee swipes their badge to exit the building in just the same way as they do when they come in…
We can also track IP addresses of PC, phones on Wi-Fi… there’s a long list of ways we can gather data about how much time someone spends in the office.
The short story is, we can solve for that. If you don’t know how, no problem, reach out and we can talk about it.
But then I ask.
“How long do they need to be in the office to count as ‘a day’ before you strike them out? 2 hrs., 4 hrs., 6 hrs.?”
They’ll give you an answer… probably 4+. Or, as I’ve seen some organizations now do, such as ANZ Bank in Australia just recently, instead of making the policy about a number of days, they are specifying a % of working time. In the case of ANZ Bank, they’ve said 50%.
Ok great!
What about an employee, let’s call him Steve, who comes in at 8, and gets a call from his kids' school at 11 that his daughter has fallen ill, and he needs to go get her. Steve leaves at 11, picks up his daughter, gets home 45 mins to an hour and works from home the rest of the day.
How do we treat Steve’s day? Does he get a strike as a day out of the office for caring for his sick child? Does he only get to count 3 hours of the day in-office? What about if his child remains ill all week and he has to work from home, does he get penalized? Or is the organizations policy that he should take PTO, even though he is capable of working and contributing his 8 hours a day?
Most HR organizations will say a hard No to penalizing him on this. They generally don’t want to be seen to penalize people for taking care of their families. That would be bad for hiring, bad in the press and just bad in general, which I fully support, and think is great.
So how do you know the difference between Steve and Molly?
Molly badges in at 9 and out at 12, goes for lunch with a friend and then works from home for the rest of the day.
Well in this scenario Molly is clearly out of policy on the 4+ hour scenario and the day should not count as an in-office day, and she should only get 3 hrs. credit for in-office hours on the % system.
Perfect. We are clear on where she sits in both the day count and % count scenarios.
Steve is good. Molly is in the bad books or trending that way.
Now on the report that goes out to the 2, 5, 10, 50 thousand managers who you’re delegating to report and enforce this policy to… how do they know the difference?
How does a manager know the difference between Steve and Molly when looking at the data on their in-office time and how do they keep track of this to ensure they don’t incorrectly reprimand or penalize an employee?
Let me play out this conversation I’ve actually had here for you.
How will we know the difference between Steve and Molly?
Steve will need to fill out a form to explain this….
Oh… right… Steve’s filling out a form... got it.
- Who’s making this form?
- Do we have a list of approved activities on this form?
- Who came up with it?
- How is the data on this form being correlated back into this badging/IP address audit report to align the days etc.?
Here’s where you’ll get blank stares from those who’ve ask you to do this because this is getting complicated.
Let’s just say Steve filled out a form, he’s good, but Molly, she’s in the bad books because she left after 3 hrs. to have lunch with a friend and then worked from home.
Got it.
So what about if Molly had left at 12, went and had lunch with a client or a partner for 2 hours and then went home and worked for the afternoon... Is she still in the bad books?
Is the 2 hrs. lunch/client meeting considered in-office time?
This is where things tend to fall apart.
My money here is on … of course it's considered in-office!! She’s in supplier management and we encourage them to spend time building relationships with our providers.
Ok great, got it… Molly is also good… but how do you know this? The data you are using to track all this can’t tell the difference between Molly and Steve. They behaviors with all the systems has been the same.
Is the answer she fills out a form too? (You can see where this is going right?)
I put it to you, that with a very few role exceptions, companies don’t actually want people in the office. They even encourage them to be outside the office. What they really don’t want is people working from home.
This is exactly why I believe policies like these are going to be virtually impossible to broadly enforce.
Here is another great scenario I like to propose.
Can someone choose to work at a Starbucks? Will this count as in office time/day?
Likely answer: No.
Can someone meet with a supplier, or another member of their team in the Starbucks 2 blocks from our office, or while walking around the lake in our business park? (Walking meetings are encouraged for health and wellness, right?)
It’s highly likely the reply to this will be, those are considered ‘in-office’.
Ok great!
How do you tell the difference in a way you can gather data that would enable you to build a case to penalize someone based on a policy that would stand up in court?
The only way to do this is to have every person fill out a form for every hour of their day and justify where they are going to be and why!
Who’s going to work somewhere like this? How scalable do you think it is?
I’m by no means saying this is impossible. There is data out there that could get to this level of detail. But it’s by no means easy to get and all the various scenarios you’d have to run to get actual data on whether or not Molly or Steve or their co-worker Parker were in compliance or not is not a simple task. It would also heavily rely on the honor system of employees marking the reason for being outside the office to be correct, which can easily be gamed.
My question here, is the juice really worth the squeeze?
I’m certainly no lawyer…. But if someone came to me and said they’d been penalized or terminated based on a numerical policy and there was no hard, black and white data to back up the action….
As I said I’m not a lawyer and this isn’t legal advice…. but if I was, I’d take the case.
All this aside, as you go through these scenarios what you’ll find is, those asking to enforce this don’t actually want people in the office, they just don’t want them at home.
- Home = bad.
- Starbucks around the corner from your house alone = Bad.
- Same Starbucks around the corner from your house with a client and 2 colleagues cause they all live in the neighborhood? Is this good?
And what about all the other grey areas…
- At a customer’s site?
- Attending a trade show or industry event?
- Flying from the US to Asia and in transit for 24–36 hours??? In-office day or considered remote?
- Off-site team building?
And is this a weekly number? A weekly average based on months?
- How are PTO days treated in these averages?
- What about public holidays?
- If I’m sick or on PTO for 2 days in a week, do I need to spend the other 3 in the office, only 1?
- Is my time pro-rated etc.
I mean, the list goes on!
Bottom line: These aren’t RTO policies companies are trying to put in place, they are ‘Don’t Work from Home’ policies. These names don’t have a great PR/ talent acquisition ring to them, but that’s really what they are.
But regardless of what you call them, the reality is, without snooping all the way down into every ISP that could be used by your people to work out the difference between them being at home or at a local cafe with a client, it’s my opinion that you aren’t going to get data to a definitive enough level to enforce any of this automatically.
Even if you spent all the time, money, effort, external consultants, testing etc. etc., there are still exceptions that you’d need a way of correlating to an exception form that people would be filling out using the honor system every time they sneezed, or took a walk around the lake at your campus with 2 colleagues… which is an activity you’re actually encouraging.
Data is king in supporting, and if desired, backing enforcement of these policies. But working outside the offices is very nuanced and each company, site and office has its own situations that need to be taken into account.
Technology will be needed to gather, synthesize and report on the data points organizations are going to need to put together accurate reports to support enforceable outcomes. But as I’ve spoken about in this episode, knowing exactly what you need to measure, like almost everything in every smart space, is imperative to your initiative’s success.
If you need help with this, I’ve put together a checklist available for you. I’ll send you through 15 scenarios to think through when crafting your Return to Office Policy. Be sure to check you SPAM folder if you haven’t received a note from me before.
At the same time, when you hear about RTO policies, let’s be sure to get clarity on what’s really being asked.
Are they really RTO policies or ‘Don’t Work at Home’ policies. This will make sure you think of them in the right way and help you craft a way to get the data on what the business is really seeking to measure.
Only then do we know what we’re really trying to monitor and enforce. Because contrary to the narrative, I contend companies don’t actually want people back in the office, they just don’t want them working at home.
And that isn’t something you can monitor and report on with badge data.
If you’re looking for more information on all the different ways to monitor and measure workplace occupancy, be sure to check out episode 4 of the Creating Smarter Spaces podcast, How to Measure Workplace Occupancy.
And if you’re not already a subscriber to the podcast, I’d encourage you to do so. I’ve got some fun episodes coming up you won’t want to miss, including a few great case studies on my recent experiences with the Marriot Bonvoy Mobile App and how Disney Cruise Line’s smart, connected laundry rooms left me with a bag of dirty clothes halfway across the Pacific Ocean.
